“the investigation of a 1706 'accidental' death develops into a true page-turner … Hantover’s skills in portraying a complicated time period are well-honed. He layers the details of society and culture with grace, skill, and tenderness.” - Historical Novel Review

Fumiani is dead. Again.

In 1706, the artist Giovanni Fumiani fell to his death while painting the immense ceiling of Venice’s San Pantalon. When he turns up dead again four years later, the parish priest asks Stefano Bigio, an impoverished nobleman, to unravel the circumstances of the artist’s deaths and disappearance. So begins a journey into the corrupt underbelly of the dying Republic of Venice. Lies, murder, and the ambition of the powerful block Bigio’s way. He has no choice but to seek clues to the mystery in the magnificent art of the city to which he has paid little attention.